political marketing and online advertising

Conservatives Leadership Race 2022- FB Advertising tracker

Conservatives: Leadership Race 2022 – Facebook Advertising spending tracker

In Canada, Facebook has emerged as a leading digital platform for political advertising over the past few years. Regardless of whether it is a federal, provincial, or municipal election campaign, candidates are taking advantage of the platform because of the high return on investment and wide audience reach that it provides. This holds true for party leadership elections, where a digital and social media marketing agency for political campaigns can play a pivotal role in shaping candidates’ strategies. With the Conservative Party’s race for a new party leader around the corner (scheduled for September 10, 2022), each of the six verified candidates is taking advantage of Facebook to strengthen their positions and build the trust among their supporters. During the months before the elections, it is fascinating to observe how much political candidates are spending on social media advertising, on Facebook in particular. In order to make tracking the leader’s advertising expenditures easier for you, we present here a dynamic Facebook advertising spending tracker. With this tool, you can see the total amount of money spent on Facebook by the six Conservative party leadership candidates: Scott Aitchison, Roman Baber, Patrick Brown, Jean Charest, Leslyn Lewis, and Pierre Poilievre. The data is directly sourced from Facebook’s advertising library and will be updated daily based on the last 30 days! Go ahead and take a look!  Our Insights: Currently, we observe an interesting dynamic between the six candidates vying to become the next leader of the Conservative Party. As of now, Pierre Poilievre is taking the lion’s share of spending, nearly $25,000. This amounts to almost $5K more than what all of the other candidates have spent combined. Digital and social media marketing agencies for political campaigns are likely to analyze these trends and adjust their strategies accordingly. Will this advertising strategy enable Pierre Poilievre to take over the reins of the Conservative Party of Canada and potentially form the next government? We shall see! Stay tuned to our blog for more insights and updates regarding digital media advertising in Canadian politics!

Facebook Advertising For Political Campaigns in Canada: 6 facts to consider

Facebook Advertising for Political Campaigns in Canada – 6 Facts to Consider

In the run-up to Ontario Provincial Elections 2022, digital political advertising is in full swing. During election cycles, political parties hire marketers and agencies to design and manage digital campaigns, including Facebook advertising, to help them woo voters across their ridings.  This article serves as a timely reminder of why Facebook advertising is essential to any successful political campaign that aims to grow the voters’ support. In failing to understand the benefits and challenges of Facebook advertising, you would be missing out on a potentially game-changing platform for your campaign’s success, especially when considering the insights from a digital and social media marketing agency for political campaigns. Here’s a list of 6 facts that you should know and consider about Facebook advertising for political campaigns in Canada: 1. Advertising on Facebook is extremely popular Did you know that Canadians are the world’s most active Facebook users? Accordingly, about 72% of all Internet users in Canada are currently on Facebook, and most of them check their pages several times a day. Furthermore, people often use social media for more than two hours every day on average. Hence, political leaders cannot ignore Facebook since their voters – present and potential – are on it every single day. Given that, during last year’s federal elections in Canada (2021), the leading parties ran a total of more than 14,000 ads for a total worth more than $6.7 million between June 17th, 2021, and Sept. 14th, 2021. Facebook offers a very engaging and powerful platform for your campaign to find and reach your constituents. 2. Facebook provides precise audience targeting Facebook advertising has the advantage of reaching your target audience quickly and effectively. As an advertisement or micro-targeting platform, Facebook offers the best results. People can be selected based on their age, gender, interests, profession, behaviour, and location. Facebook’s targeting capabilities are unlike any other platform and you can combine its features to ensure you have a very targeted audience of potential voters in your riding. As audience quality is more important than audience size, you should reach voters who are likely to support you during the next election as opposed to random users. You have many options when it comes to selecting audiences. However, setting up those audiences as part of a specific strategy is certainly necessary to achieve your political objectives. 3. Facebook advertising is critical for your campaign In the last few years, Facebook has reduced the visibility of pages in news feeds, which is an unpleasant update of algorithms for all political organizations and candidates. Even Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed that Facebook will prioritize publications from friends and family. To summarize, the days of organic reach and easy viral success on Facebook are over. Hence, it is necessary to utilize Facebook advertising to achieve success. Despite the fact that you are building a community of followers, you should be aware that only a few of them actually see your posts. If your political organization wishes to adapt to the current situation by expanding its reach and voter base, Facebook advertising is an absolute necessity. 4. Best ROI and Measurable Results In spite of Facebook’s wide range of audience targeting options and features, its advertising costs are relatively low. We should not forget that here, too, the price is determined by many factors, including the overall objective of the campaign, the advertisement quality, the size and relevance of the audience, as well as the level of competition. You are able to run ads for any budget you can afford, even as low as $5 a day per campaign. This means that Facebook’s Ads Manager is a great tool for you to experiment with political advertising and measure ROI before doubling down on a winning strategy. Facebook also provides measurable results, including metrics regarding demographics, click-throughs, messages sent, collecting leads, assessing a party’s awareness, measuring ad views, and engagement, etc.  When used wisely, all of these metrics can provide a wealth of information about current results, user behaviour, and more. As you can imagine, reading them and following up takes many years of experience, and this is why it is always valuable to engage a team of digital experts that can help you craft the winning strategy for your campaign. 5. Building and maintaining a presence is a big responsibility On a social networking site, users spend approximately two to three seconds on a post. If it does not catch their attention, they seek out more interesting content. Moreover, people scroll through 90 meters of mobile web content each day. Thus, an engaging mix of images, videos, and text is necessary to attract attention. Successful Facebook advertising for political campaigns requires a clear message with a vision that’s well-crafted in a short piece, but that can be difficult to achieve. In this context, engaging a digital and social media marketing agency for political campaigns can provide the expertise needed to create compelling content that resonates with voters In a nutshell, it is crucial to consider how sponsored advertisements are designed to reach the specific audience – whether the political campaigns are aware of who they are talking to and who their potential supporters are, or whether the advertisements are simply “scrollable” and will have no impact on the audience. 6.   Facebook Advertising for Political Advertising isn’t easy to manage, despite improvements While Facebook has made many user-friendly updates to its ad manager and business manager tools, it still isn’t an intuitive platform for most users. Many political candidates and parties believe that a simple ‘boost’ post is the easiest and most effective way to get started. The reality couldn’t be far from that. Achieving good results and optimizing campaigns to bring the best returns for advertisers including political campaigns requires a great deal of experience and skills. A properly managed account and a well-structured campaign strategy can make it possible to advertise effectively on Facebook. Defining which metrics to monitor is yet another important task. Another critical component of any digital political

Ontario 2022 elections: Facebook adverting spending tracker

Facebook Advertising Spending Tracker : Ontario Elections 2022

Last Update: June 2, 2022 Facebook advertising spending has been on the rise for the last couple of years in Canadian politics. At the time of the 2021 Federal Elections, a great deal of advertising budget was allocated to Facebook’s platforms. Accordingly, this trend appears to continue during this year’s provincial elections in Ontario. For political parties and candidates, Facebook advertising (which includes its platform Instagram as well) offers an excellent opportunity to engage new audiences and gain their trust, particularly when leveraging a digital and social media marketing agency for political campaigns to optimize their strategies. This is critical given that some of the other popular social media platforms (like Twitter, Tik Tok) have banned any political advertising leading campaign managers and strategists to place all their bets on Facebook. It’s always interesting to watch what the parties and key candidates are spending on social media advertising during campaign periods. To make it easier for you, we’ll be providing two Facebook advertising spending trackers here. Our first Facebook advertising spending tracker showcases the total amount of money spent by the official accounts of the five key provincial parties. Our second tracker highlights the spending using the official accounts of the leaders of these provincial parties. This information is directly sourced via Facebook’s ad library and will automatically refresh every week! So, go ahead and have a look!  Facebook Advertising Spending by the Provincial Parties’ Official Accounts Period: May 1, 2022 – May 30, 2022 Our take – During the provincial election campaign in Ontario in 2022, the main provincial parties had been aggressively targeting potential voters via social media advertising. Throughout the first official week of the 2022 Ontario Provincial Election Campaign, the Ontario Liberal Party spent close to $200,000 on Facebook via its official account while the incumbent PC Party spent a grand total of $0! As the campaign progressed, It was interesting to note, that the Ontario PC Party rapidly caught up to the Ontario Liberals as they hold steady in the polls. In the period between May 15th, 2022 and May 23rd, 2022, the Liberal Party of Ontario spent $ 244.6K on Facebook advertising, while the Ontario PC Party was very close at $ 219.9K. As the campaign progressed towards its end and as is evident in Facebook’s Ad library report, this trend did not continue. For the past 30 days, the Liberals have spent approximately $1.12 million, while the Ontario PC Party has spent $512,000. Combined, all parties’ official accounts have spent a staggering amount of just under $1.8 million, with the Liberal Party of Ontario receiving the largest share. In light of these findings, Facebook advertising, especially when guided by a digital and social media marketing agency for political campaigns, is by no means being abandoned as a vehicle for political advertising.  Facebook Advertising Spending using Provincial Party Leaders’ Accounts Period: May 1, 2022 – May 30 2022 Our take – The Ontario Liberals were also spending aggressively via their leader’s official account on Facebook to ensure that the lesser-known Steven Del Duca can create some brand recall in the minds of the Ontario voters. Did this help? We’re soon to find out! What do you think about the advertising dollars the provincial political parties and leaders are spending on Facebook? Please leave your comments below! Don’t forget to share this blog post with your friends! For the latest updates and insights on political digital marketing in Canada, stay connected with EOK Consults Inc via social media.

How to Choose the Best Political Digital Marketing Agency? Canada

How to Choose the Best Political Digital Marketing Agency?

It’s 2021 (almost) and online advertising and digital marketing have emerged as critical pieces of any modern political campaign puzzle. In Canada and around the world, online advertising is now considered a strategic advantage and something no campaign can take lightly. Many successful campaigns boast of professional communication teams well-versed in storytelling, platform building and media management. However, only few campaigns can claim to have the technical skills and expertise when it comes to digital marketing. Consequently, this is where hiring a Digital and Social Media Marketing Agency for Political Campaigns can come into play. Most importantly, strategic political marketing isn’t about just posting regular content and looking at the likes and shares. A well-defined and executed online advertising and digital marketing strategy can mean the difference between winning and losing an election. Choosing the best political digital marketing agency isn’t very straightforward. Firstly, this phenomenon is relatively new to Canada. Secondly, digital marketing evolves all the time. For instance, new algorithm rules, techniques, and platforms emerge almost every day. Above all, keeping on top of all these changes and mastering the various platforms isn’t something a political campaign can always afford to do in-house. Additionally, choosing the best political digital marketing agency for your campaign or political organization isn’t like finding an agency for a business. Political marketing has various nuances and differences from traditional digital marketing. To clarify, some of the key differences include the following –  Shorter campaign periods vs the long-term approach in business marketing Budgetary concerns and legal reporting requirements Personality-driven platforms vs a business ‘entity’ or brand Confused? Worry not! We’re here to help you choose the best political digital marketing agency for your next campaign or political office. Most importantly, we have tabulated this process in 5 easy steps for every campaign manager or political organizer to follow. 5 Steps to Choose the Best Political Digital Marketing Agency 1. Identify Your Key Requirements Political candidates and organizations are unique. Likewise, the requirements when it comes to online advertising and digital marketing are unique to each campaign. Many campaigns just need some help to manage their online ads. On the other hand, there are others that need a complete ‘full-service’ approach to build strategy, setup online presence, engage with the audience, run ads, report, optimize and more. You can call it the ‘project’ vs the ‘full-service’ idea. Further, a good starting point for any candidate or organization should be to list down the key requirements unique to your situation. You may answer the following questions and create some helpful background text on your requirements before you look for the best political digital marketing agency. Do you already have a website? Or is this something you need done? What about your social media handles? Can your team create and post content for you or is this something you need help with? How much digital marketing expertise do you have within yourself or your team? How much time can you invest on your own? Do you prefer a hands-off approach? 2. Define Marketing Objectives Moreover, it’s important that you define the key results you expect out of your political digital marketing agency. Without a clear list of goals, measuring a proposal or outcomes isn’t possible. While the ultimate goal for any political campaign is electoral victory, translating that into measurable marketing goals is the key. Most importantly, focus should be on the goals that matter – not vanity metrics like post likes and comments.  For example, building online profile, growing website traffic, identifying supporters or right audience could be the objectives for first-time candidates. On the other hand, incumbent candidates or political office holders may care more about engagement and conversion metrics with their constituents. 3. Set Your Evaluation Criteria Firstly, set the parameters you’ll use to compare one agency vs the other before you begin reaching out. For instance, some of the key questions that you may include in your criteria are –   Budget – How much will the project or full service cost you? Is there any flexibility on the price? Is advertising spend included or extra? In short, cheap isn’t always good so do factor in overall value an agency brings Credentials – How much past experience with political campaigns the agency has? Who are the team members? Who exactly is going to work on your account? What’s their professional accomplishments? Recommendations – Are there any references the agency can provide? Other politicians, candidates or organizations who used their services and achieved desired results? Culture and Working Style – Certainly, a political digital marketing agency will be part of your overall campaign team. How well do you think they will work with you and other members of your team? Do they believe in your platform/party/ideas? What’s their working style and does it match yours? Are their words merely jargon or you can understand what they aim to accomplish easily? Go with your hunch and focus on the ‘fit’. 4. Ask for Ideas and a Proposal After that, reach out to a few agencies and get them to submit ideas and an outline proposal to work on your political campaign or project. Consider the time and ease of first-time communication as additional factors for your evaluation. In addition, bring on your campaign manager and or other team members to form a small committee for a fair analysis. 5. Evaluate and Select Lastly, compare the proposals you received with the evaluation criteria you set in step 3 and discover the best political digital marketing agency for your campaign!  To sum up, online advertising and digital marketing are critical aspects for you to include in your political campaign strategy. In the same vein, choosing the right agency and team to work for you can make all the difference.  If you’re looking for a Digital and Social Media Marketing Agency for Political Campaigns, learn more about EOK Consults here. You can also explore our services or contact us here.

Political Marketing Canada

Political Marketing: Here’s Why Online Advertising Works

It’s November 04, 2008 and Barack Obama, a little-known senator created history as the first African American to win the Presidential in the United States. As TV pundits and political analysts debated how Obama managed this historic feat, there seemed to be a consensus when it came to one of the key factors in his surprising win. Barack Obama, they said, ignited hope and a desire for change in how politics was done. And he used social media, online advertising and technology to do just that. Above all, in that process, he changed political marketing forever. In the US and beyond (Canada included). Obama’s campaign went big with over $16 million on online advertising in 2008. Compared to a measly $3.6 million spent by John McCain’s camp tells half the story. In about 12 years since then, online advertising’s share in US political advertising has just exploded. Together, the Trump and Biden Campaign spent over $175 million on online advertising platforms – a lion’s share going to Facebook. This represents a staggering 792% increase in online political advertising! In Canada, while our numbers are significantly smaller, the growth has been equally significant and dramatic. For instance, the three major political parties spent at least over $10 million on online advertising in the 2019 Federal election. The overall spend increases manifold when you include third-party advertising and online media used in political and local campaigns. There’s one key reason behind this rise of online advertising in political campaigns in Canada – it simply works! As a Digital and Social Media Marketing Agency for Political Campaigns, we can attest to the effectiveness of these strategies. Here are some key reasons why online advertising works in political marketing 1. Unparalleled reach Canada is known to be one of the world’s most connected populations. With over 25 million social networking users, we have a social network penetration rate of 67 percent! That is 25 million and more potential viewers for political messages available at a few clicks. Platforms like Facebook and Google further allow advertisers to select and curate custom audiences as per their needs. Compare this with traditional political marketing channels. These include canvassing, tele-calling, lawn signs, flyers, banners or radio advertising. While definitely important for any campaign, such approaches suffer from key limitations. Limitations including limited scalability, inaccurate data, need for human resources and lack of measurable results and accountability. Using TV and mass media channels involves significant overheads and budgets. Similarly, such platforms often reach out to a generic or homogenous audience and offer limited data on engagement and response. 2. Microtargeting Online advertising channels like Facebook and Google encourage advertisers to find and target the kind of audience they desire for a paid communication. The kind of audience to be used can include various demographic characteristics like age, location as well as interests or online behaviours.  For political campaigns, this is golden. It allows campaigns to find the right kind of people that will engage with their key policy issues or causes. In addition, campaigns can showcase different messages to different audiences and evaluate response and future action. This is a flexibility which no other mass media tool can offer.  A key aspect for any political campaign is to make sure that their advertising budget is spent within their riding or constituency. That is another feature where online advertising shines. Campaigns have the ability to geo-fence their target location carefully and only show their ads to people who live or reside there.  3. Return on Investment Political campaigns spend a lot of their effort in fundraising and are required to keep a close watch on every dollar going out. This is another area where online advertising really shines. All popular platforms like Facebook and Google ads offer granular metrics on the results ad campaigns achieve. Whether that’s website views, number of times a video was watched or how many people were reached, there’s all kinds of data available. For every $1 a political campaign spends on online advertising, they can be sure of the impact it makes.  In the 2015 Federal Election, Tom Pitfield, the Liberals’ chief digital strategist for the campaign commented how “digital had the greatest ROI (amongst all their advertising platforms)” and how they “focused on it as a strategic advantage”. We have managed numerous digital campaigns for political candidates and parties. Naturally, we have seen some interesting trends (with certain assumptions). Here are some major ones that highlight the ROI aspect of online advertising in political marketing – Very few mass-media platforms can compare with those kinds of metrics. This explains the fondness modern campaign managers have for social media and online advertising. 4. The Perfect Testing Ground The rise of digital media and online advertising in political campaigns doesn’t mean that traditional tools aren’t required anymore. In fact, online advertising can serve as the perfect testing ground for campaigns.  A key characteristic of a Facebook or Google campaign is the ability to A/B test different messages, images or videos as well as custom audiences. All within a small testing budget. Furthermore, campaigns can track performance of each ad set on a daily basis and turn off any non-performing ones with a couple of clicks. For instance, testing which issues or messaging connects better with the voters online before committing to these through mainstream channels. Certainly, Online advertising and traditional political marketing can complement each other to be part of a holistic winning strategy. Above all, this strategy can be one that connects with all kinds of voters across demographics. 5. Building Momentum and Fundraising Online advertising allows political campaigns to amplify the work they do on ground – knocking doors and meeting voters. With the power, reach and affordability of digital tools, campaigns can build momentum and get people ‘talking about’ the issues that matter. There’s a reason why the mainstream media covers ‘what’s trending on Facebook or Twitter’.  Moreover, online advertising often contributes to creation and expansion of ‘viral moments’ and that extends to

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